Following the Lakers' 111-106 victory over the Jazz in their preseason finale, coach Mike D'Antoni ruled out the 15-time All-Star guard for the much-anticipated, nationally-televised opening night match-up.

Earlier this week, the five-time champion told reporters that he had "scaled back" his activity following the Lakers' return from a tour through Asia.

"I was cranking it up the entire time I was in China," Bryant said, in comments videotaped by NBCLA.com. "I've scaled back since, just to let it heal up a little bit more and get a little bit more flexibility to it. It feels good to just run and break a sweat by running.

While in China, Bryant did his best to preach a patient approach.

"The hardest part is not thinking ahead," Bryant said in target="_blank">videotaped comments. "If you think ahead about what it's going to be like when I come back, you get excited, but you get disappointed because you're still here in this predicament. One of the things I haven't really tested is the getting off the floor part, the jumping part. I've got to measure that. That's got to be next. You want to get out there and push a little bit, but you've got to keep your patience but it's tough. You've got to focus on the moment, focus on day by day getting better, and believing that that time will come."

“I’ve got to get my fat ass in shape,” Bryant joked earlier this month. “Six months of eating whatever the hell I wanted to eat and not running, stuff like that. I’ve got to get in shape.”

That self-deprecating “fat ass” quip came one day after he discussed his recent trip to Germany for platelet-rich plasma therapy on his right knee during an in-game interview aired on Time Warner Cable SportsNet.

“It’s going well, I feel good,” he said, during the Lakers’ preseason win over the Nuggets on Oct. 8. “Obviously I feel like I’m ahead of schedule. It’s about kind of getting that range of motion where I feel like I can run comfortably. The last stage is really the explosiveness and the muscle endurance and that will come.”

Bryant, 35, is entering the final year of a contract that will pay him an NBA-high $30.5 million. He needs just 676 points to move past Michael Jordan for the No. 3 spot on the all-time scoring list.